Nota / NoteLe schede dei film in programma sono ordinate per titolo e corredate
di brevi biografie delle protagoniste. Per quanto riguarda lanno
di nascita, riportato anche nellalbo donore, frequenti sono
le discrepanze riscontrate nelle tradizionali opere di consultazione,
probabilmente perché, con il passare del tempo, le interessate
tendevano a ritoccarsi letà. Era per noi chiaramente impossibile
accedere a fonti di prima mano e pertanto, anziché riportare tutte
le varianti, ci siamo in genere attenuti ai dati ricavati dallottimo
volume del compianto Eugene Michael Vazzana, Silent Film Necrology
(2a ed., 2001).  DR
The following programme notes are arranged in order of film title, with
brief biographies of the featured comediennes following the credits and
notes on the film. A problem in compiling these biographies, as well as
the preceding "Roll of Honour, has been the frequent discrepancies
in the birth dates recorded by previous reference sources (no doubt resulting
from the tendency of some early 20th-century actresses to "adjust
their birth date with the passage of time). When it was impossible for
us to research primary sources, we have generally favoured the conclusions
of Eugene Michael Vazzanas Silent Film Necrology (second
edition, 2001), unquestionably the best-researched work of its type and
scope.  DR

Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley is a champagne glass of exuberance
 if that is the way to describe such an emphatically plebeian comedy.
Full of typical Marshall Neilan clowning, enriching the Frances Marion
script, it has an exceptionally charming performance by Mary Pickford.
She plays Amarilly Jenkins, a cigarette girl in the Cyclone Café,
in love with a bartender, Terry (William Scott). When Gordon Phillips,
a wealthy sculptor (Norman Kerry), is injured in a brawl, she takes him
home to her mother (Kate Price), an Irish laundrywoman. This brings Amarilly
in contact with the upper class. Gordons mother, intrigued by this
working-class girl, makes her the center of a social experiment and invites
her to live at her palatial residence. She is alarmed to find Gordon falling
for Amarilly. But the two soon realize they are not right for each other.
When Amarillys mother, invited to tea with the Phillips family,
dances a jig with the butler, Gordons mother realizes her mistake,
and Amarilly returns to her bartender.Social satire aside, the film is valuable for the light it throws
on the behavior of the time. The scenes in the Cyclone Café show
it to be the New York equivalent of an Alaskan dance hall, with cigarette
girls, prostitutes, and uninhibited dancing. In one remarkable scene,
a group of men troop into a brothel, but Terry leaves them at the door,
where he is congratulated by a priest lurking in the shadows. This is
the sort of scene that would not appear on the American screen again for
a decade, and then only fleetingly (in Monta Bells Man, Woman
and Sin, 1927).Although Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley has been rarely
screened since its original release, it stands as one of the most brilliantly
made films of its time. Over the years, a few historians have drawn attention
to it. In his biography of Pickford, Scott Eyman pointed out an homage
to Chaplin, when Amarilly, fired from a job in a theatre, seems defeated:
"But then, in a long shot, back to camera, she pauses, throws her
shoulders back and moves briskly off into the horizon, full of new never-say-die
resolve in precisely the manner that Chaplin had already patented.
This startling silhouette, the tiny figure dwarfed by the height of the
theatre, is but one of the flourishes with which this film is packed.
Equally unforgettable is the enchanting way in which Pickford introduces
herself  cleaning the soap from a window to reveal her grin. In
his classic study The Movies in the Age of Innocence, Edward Wagenknecht
praised the scene in which Neilan dissolved from three overdressed and
gossipy women at afternoon tea to three Persian cats: "This was the
cinematic way of doing the thing, which was right, as contrasted with
the literary way, which would have been wrong. As a film about class
consciousness, Arthur Lennig, writing in Classic Film Collector
(Spring 1978), compared it to D.W. Griffiths The Mother and
the Law, the modern story in Intolerance (1916): "Griffith
played his film for sentiment and tragedy and drama, and saw social issues
in more serious terms; uplifters encroaching upon the downtrodden. But
Amarilly, although it deals with reformers, sees the conflict in
terms of light comedy and satire." And yet the film did not betray
its subject by providing the usual Cinderella ending, with the girl marrying
the prince. "Instead it disposes of him and has her marry Terry.(Kevin
Brownlow, adapted from his book Mary Pickford Rediscovered,
1999)

Mary Pickford (1892-1979)
Non solo "la fidanzata dAmerica" ma "la fidanzata
del mondo", Mary Pickford conobbe un tipo di celebrità e di
adulazione che nessunaltra attrice o professionista moderna ha eguagliato.
Quando suo padre, operaio, rimase ucciso in un incidente sul lavoro, Mary
divenne a cinque anni il sostegno della famiglia lavorando come attrice
con il nome di Baby Gladys Smith. A 14 anni, ormai una veterana, convinse
David Belasco a darle un ruolo nel suo lavoro teatrale The Warrens
of Virginia (era stato Belasco a darle il suo nome darte) e
due anni più tardi si presentò alla Biograph, da D. W. Griffith.
In quel periodo di anonimità fu subito identificata ed adorata
dal pubblico come "la piccola Mary", "la ragazza dai riccioli"
o "la ragazza della Biograph," contribuendo ad accelerare lascesa
dello star system. Dopo il 1910 cambiò diverse case di produzione
 la Biograph, la Imp, la Majestic, di nuovo la Biograph, la Famous
Players  in cerca di compensi sempre più astronomici (la
sua gara con Chaplin a chi fosse il più pagato era proverbiale),
ma, quel che più conta, di una maggior indipendenza. Raggiunse
finalmente la totale indipendenza produttiva nel 1919 quando costituì,
con Fairbanks, Chaplin e Griffith, la United Artist. La Pickford puntò
sulla qualità delle produzioni, circondandosi di tecnici ed artisti
eccellenti; seppe anche scegliere con intelligenza i propri ruoli, sfruttando
la sua tipica immagine di giovane coraggiosa, audace e generosa, che supera
ogni ostacolo per fare del bene e trovare la felicità. Ebbe in
effetti così tanto successo che il pubblico non le permise di sfuggire
a tali ruoli: a trentanni suonati faceva ancora parti di adolescente,
e quando cercò di maturare e passare al sonoro i suoi devoti fan
la rifiutarono. Era unattrice consumata, infinitamente espressiva
e con un acuto senso della commedia. I suoi ruoli non le permisero sempre
di sfruttare il suo talento comico, che è peraltro evidente in
Amarilly.  DR
Not just "Americas Sweetheart but "The Worlds
Sweetheart, Mary Pickford knew a kind of stardom and public adulation
that no other actress or modern woman of any profession has equalled.
When her labourer father was killed in an accident at work, the 5-year-old
girl became the family breadwinner as a child actress, Baby Gladys Smith.
At 14, a seasoned veteran, she charmed David Belasco into giving her a
role in his stage play The Warrens of Virginia (it was Belasco
who gave her her professional name), and two years later she presented
herself to D.W. Griffith at Biograph. In those days of anonymity, she
was swiftly identified and adored by the public as "Little Mary,
"The Girl With the Curls, or "The Biograph Girl;
and did much to force the advent of the star system. After 1910 she moved
from company to company  from Biograph to Imp, Majestic, Biograph
again, Famous Players  always in search of more astronomical salaries
(her competition with Chaplin to be the bigger earner was a byword), but,
more importantly, of greater independence. Total independence in production
was finally won with the formation in 1919 of United Artists  the
company set up by Pickford, Fairbanks, Chaplin, and Griffith to release
their own productions. Pickford was skilful in surrounding herself with
high-quality production values and superior crews and casts; and she chose
her parts shrewdly, to exploit her characteristic image of a brave, spunky,
generous young girl, overcoming every obstacle to do good and win happiness.
She was so successful, indeed, that the public would not let her escape
or change her role: in her mid-30s she was still playing teenagers, and
when she attempted to grow up in sound films, her loyal fans virtually
rejected her. She was a consummate actress, endlessly expressive and with
a shrewd sense of comedy. Her roles did not always permit her to exploit
this comic talent, but it is very apparent in Amarilly. 
DR

Bebe Daniels (1901-1971)
Nata Phyllis (o Virginia) Daniels a Dallas, Texas, a quattro anni già
recitava con la compagnia itinerante del padre. A nove debuttò
nel cinema come attrice bambina con The Common Enemy di Selig. A quattordici
anni iniziò a recitare ruoli da adulta negli Hal Roach Studios,
dove lavorò in circa duecento cortometraggi, di cui 155 con Harold
Lloyd, per poi passare alla Paramount nel 1919. Elevata al rango di attrice
drammatica oltre che comica, fece diversi film con De Mille e rimase,
con Pola Negri e Gloria Swanson, una delle stelle più popolari
della Paramount negli anni 20. Tra gli altri ruoli, si rivelò
una perfetta partner di Valentino nella commedia romantica Monsieur Beaucaire.
Con lavvento del sonoro la Paramount la licenziò, ma Bebe
dimostrò, con la RKO, di poter recitare e cantare in Rio Rita (1929).
Con il marito Ben Lyon si trasferì in Gran Bretagna a metà
degli anni 30, quando entrambe le loro carriere erano in declino.
Qui ottennero una considerevole popolarità nel varietà,
alla radio ed in televisione, con il loro spettacolo a puntate Life with
the Lyons.  DR
Born Phyllis (or Virginia) Daniels, in Dallas, Texas, she was already
acting in her fathers touring stage company at the age of 4. At
9 she made her film debut in Seligs The Common Enemy, and
embarked on a career as a child screen actress. At 14 she began playing
adult roles at the Hal Roach studios, where she made some 200 shorts 
155 of them with Harold Lloyd  before 1919, when she signed with
Paramount. Now elevated to dramatic as well as comedy roles, she made
several films with De Mille, and alongside Pola Negri and Gloria Swanson
remained one of Paramounts most popular stars in the 1920s. Among
other roles, she proved an admirable romantic-comedy partner to Valentino
in Monsieur Beaucaire. With the coming of sound Paramount dropped
her, but at RKO she showed she was equal to the new medium when she starred
and sang in Rio Rita (1929). With her husband Ben Lyon she moved
to Britain in the mid-1930s, when both stars careers were declining.
There they achieved considerable popularity in variety theatres and on
radio and television, with their long-running family show Life With
the Lyons.  DR

Dale Fuller, with her special quality of being tough but with a barely-concealed
sense of injury, plays the proprietress of a hotel, with fat, incompetent,
eye-roving Fred Mace as her husband and partner. The situation provides
the opportunity for lots of bedroom and bathroom mix-ups, and the whole
ends in an exuberant orgy of fire and flood.
Little is known of Edwin Frazee. He first appears in 1915 directing one-off
comedies for Universal, Nestor, and L-KO before joining Keystone later
the same year. Fourteen Keystone titles are recorded in 1915-16, the last
apparently being Bath Tub Perils. Five films are credited to him
between 1917 and 1920, two of them produced by his own company. After
Bedtime (1920) there is no further trace of this short-lived but
 to judge from Bath Tub Perils  not untalented career.
 DR

(Maria) Dale Fuller (1885-1948)
Nata a Santa Ana, in California, da genitori franco-irlandesi, Dale Fuller
iniziò la sua carriera nella rivista musicale per poi unirsi a
Mack Sennett come attrice comica e interpretare tra il 1916 ed il 1918
due dozzine circa di uno o due rulli. Poi però scomparve dalle
scene fino a quando One Wonderful Night (1922) la lanciò
nei lungometraggi come caratterista di grande affidabilità e distinzione.
Erich von Stroheim, che chiaramente ne ammirava il talento, le diede ruoli
significativi in Foolish Wives (Femmine folli), Merry-Go-Round
(Donne viennesi), Greed e The Wedding March (Sinfonia nuziale);
Lubitsch, invece, le affidò un piccolo ruolo in The Marriage
Circle (Matrimonio in quattro). Lattrice fece anche alcuni film
parlati, lultimo dei quali fu The House of Mystery di William
Nigh (1934).  DR
Born in Santa Ana, California, of Irish and French parents, Dale Fuller
began her career in musical revue, then joined Mack Sennett as a comic.
She made two dozen one- or two-reelers for Sennett between 1916 and 1918,
but then disappears from view until 1922, when One Wonderful Night
definitively launched her as a reliable and distinctive supporting character
player in features. Erich von Stroheim clearly admired her talent, and
gave her significant roles in Foolish Wives, Merry-Go-Round,
Greed, and The Wedding March; while Lubitsch gave her a
small role in The Marriage Circle. She made a few talking pictures,
the last of them William Nighs The House of Mystery (1934).
DR

Jimmie is in love with the daughter of a beautician, but father does
not approve of the affair. Jimmie is therefore reduced to disguises. When
a bottle of hair remover turns him bald, he acquires a striking resemblance
to the famous French beautician Monsieur Brilliantine. In this guise he
is welcomed to the beauty parlour, but when called upon to demonstrate
his skills he is at a loss  particularly with the gigantic Blanche,
covered in grotesque disfigurements and accompanied by her protective
policeman husband. The arrival of the real Monsieur Brilliantine results
in a wild mêlée, in the course of which Blanche gets locked
in the steam room. A good steaming does the world of good for her disfigurements,
and she emerges handsome and happy.
The director Harold Beaudine (1894-1949), probably a younger brother of
William Beaudine, was a staff director at Christie Comedies from 1922
to 1928, and continued to direct 2-reel comedies spasmodically until 1933.
 DR

Blanche Payson (1881-1964)
È in genere ricordata come la gigantesca donna delle caverne che
trascina via il povero, piccolo Buster Keaton in The Three Ages(Lamore attraverso i secoli). Questa donna imponente iniziò
la sua carriera come poliziotta speciale a San Francisco. Leggiamo in
un articolo apparso su Colliers del 18 dicembre 1915 e intitolato
BLANCHE PAYSON  LA DONNA POLIZIOTTO PIÙ BELLA DAMERICA:
"Gli abitanti di San Francisco considerano Miss Blanche Payson, agente
speciale impegnata per tutta lestate e lautunno in The
Zone, la zona dei divertimenti dellEsposizione internazionale
Panama-Pacifico, è la più bella poliziotta del paese, e
la fotografia che pubblichiamo ... sembra confermarlo. La bellezza, però,
non è lunico tratto caratteristico di Miss Payson, che si
è rivelata una poliziotta completa ed eccezionalmente abile. Nessuno
lha mai considerata una "copette", una poliziottina, anche
perché è alta un metro e 95, pesa più di 92 chili
ed ha la forza di un atleta ben allenato. Durante lesposizione uno
dei suoi compiti era quello di proteggere le ragazze dai bellimbusti e
molti di quelli da lei arrestati si sono lamentati dei suoi modi spicci.
Miss Payson venne assunta dal Palace Hotel, uno dei grandi alberghi del
centro, come agente speciale incaricata di aiutare le clienti ad attraversare
la strada: fece questo lavoro per otto minuti prima che la direzione la
pagasse per rompere il contratto. Aveva attirato una folla tale che aveva
congestionato il traffico sul marciapiede e gli ospiti entravano o uscivano
a stento dallalbergo. Spera di poter diventare un membro regolare
delle forze di polizia di San Francisco questinverno."
Chiaramente, non andò così. Solo pochi mesi dopo 
forse come risultato del ritratto a figura intera che accompagnava questarticolo
 Blanche fu ingaggiata dai Keystone Studios, apparendo per la prima
volta sullo schermo in The Village Blacksmith (1916). Per la Keystone
fece poi altri 9 film nel 1916 e 5 nel 1917. Lanno seguente la troviamo
in due produzioni della Vitagraph, ma era chiaro che, per quanto singolare
fosse il suo aspetto, era difficile impiegarla. Comunque continuò
ad apparire sporadicamente in comiche a due rulli di svariata produzione
fino al 1943, con una media di due-tre film allanno in un arco di
25 anni. Tre di questi furono al fianco di Laurel e Hardy, Below Zero
(Sotto zero), Our Wife e Helpmates, in cui interpretò
la più imponente di tutte le mogli virago di Ollio. Il protagonista
del suo ultimo film, il cortometraggio della Columbia Here Comes Mr.
Zerk (1943), per la regia Jules White, fu Harry Langdon.DRBlanche Payson is generally remembered as the gigantic cavewoman
who drags off poor little Buster Keaton in The Three Ages. This
impressive woman began her career as a San Francisco special policewoman;
and was featured in an article in Colliers on 18 December 1915,
headed "BLANCHE PAYSON  THE HANDSOMEST WOMAN COP IN AMERICA.
The article reported that "San Franciscans say that Miss Blanche
Payson, special policewoman in the Zone at the Panama-Pacific Exposition
all summer and fall, is the handsomest cop in the country, and our photograph
of her seems to verify the assertion. But good looks are not Miss
Paysons only distinctive characteristic. She has proved herself
to be an exceptionally capable all-around cop. Nobody has ever called
her a copette. That word would be a misfit, because she is six feet four,
weighs two hundred and four pounds, and has the strength of a trained
athlete. Protecting girls from mashers was one of her specialties during
the exposition, and many offenders whom she arrested complained that she
handled them too roughly. Miss Payson was employed as a special policewoman
by the Palace Hotel, one of the big downtown hostelries, to assist women
guests across the street, and she worked on the job just eight minutes
before the management paid her to break the contract. She attracted a
crowd that congested sidewalk traffic so that guests could hardly get
in or out of the hotel. She hopes to become a regular member of the San
Francisco police force this winter.Clearly, though, this was not to be. Only months later  possibly
as a result of the full-length portrait that accompanied this article
 she was recruited to the Keystone Studios, where her first film
appearance was in The Village Blacksmith (1916). She went on to
complete 9 films at Keystone in 1916, and 5 in 1917. The following year
she made two films for Big V-Vitagraph, but it was clear that however
striking her figure, she was hard to cast. Until 1943, however, she continued
to appear intermittently in 2-reel comedies for various companies, averaging
2 or 3 films a year over the 25-year period. Three of these were with
Laurel and Hardy, Below Zero, Our Wife, and Helpmates,
in which she played the most formidable of all Olivers virago spouses.
The star of her last film, the Jules White Columbia short Here Comes
Mr. Zerk (1943), was Harry Langdon.  DR

In this truly bizarre early parody of the melodrama we can see the antecedents
of the absurdist tradition in British comedy. The plot concerns a baby,
the beneficiary of a will, who is kidnapped by comedy villains, chucked
through a window (thus neatly extinguishing the candle on the gunpowder
keg to which its father is tied), then dropped back out of the window,
trampled on (by Father jumping out the window!), and finally rushed to
the hospital to be re-inflated. ("If the child does not explode in
thirty seconds, the surgeon gravely diagnoses, "it will survive!)
There are gags aplenty in the intertitles, including some early spoofing
of the latest novelty, the Feature Film: a title announces that after Part
1 there will be a 30-minute interval to change spools before Part 2. There
are also mocking references to popular works of the time, such as The
Light that Failed (cited as the villains remove the coins from the
gas meter to foil the babys operation). There are some humorous
trick effects, and that ever-popular visual joke, rapid cross-cutting
between scenes in which absolutely nothing is happening.BDThe
director Edward Hay Plumb (1883-1960) was an actor in films from
1910, and from 1912 to 1915 was one of Britains most prolific directors.
He returned to activity as actor throughout the 1930s. Hepworth
star Chrissie White enters gamely into the spirit of this macabre
early parody thriller.  DR

Chrissie White (1895-1989)
Apparve per la prima volta sul palcoscenico da bambina, in Bluebell
in Fairyland e a 14 anni fu scritturata da Cecil M. Hepworth per For
the Little Ladys Sake di Lewin Fitzhamon. Lanno seguente
formò in coppia con Alma Taylor, di un anno più giovane,
le Tilly Girls, che apparvero in una serie di commedie sentimentali nel
1910 e nel 1911 (si veda anche Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor).
A partire dal 1912 Chrissie White si affermò come la prima attrice
della Hepworth e la star inglese più popolare. Era in genere affiancata
da partner quali Stewart Rome o Henry Edwards, che fu anche il regista
di gran parte dei loro film e che la sposò. Mancò dallo
schermo dal 1924 al 1930, quando riapparve in 2 film parlati (The Call
of the Sea, 1930, e General John Regan, 1933), diretti entrambi
da Edwards, dopo i quali si ritirò definitivamente dallo schermo.
 DR
Chrissie White made her first stage appearance as a child in Bluebell
in Fairyland, and at the age of 14 was engaged by Cecil M. Hepworth
for Lewin Fitzhamons For The Little Ladys Sake. The
following year she was teamed with Alma Taylor, one year her junior, as
The Tilly Girls, a team who featured in a series of sentimental comedies
in 1910 and 1911 (for more information, see Tilly the Tomboy Visits
the Poor). By 1912 Chrissie White was established as Hepworths
leading lady and the most popular British star. She was generally partnered
by Stewart Rome or Henry Edwards, who also directed most of their films
together and whom she married. She was absent from the screen from 1924
until 1930, when she returned to make two talking pictures (The Call
of the Sea, 1930, and General John Regan, 1933), both directed
by Edwards, after which she definitively retired from the screen.
 DR

Many of our Funny Ladies demonstrated more than one facet of their
talents in the course of their careers, and Constance Talmadge is no exception.
Breakfast at Sunrise, released near the end of her film career,
is a frothy romantic comedy consistent with her other starring vehicles
of the same period. Its a far cry from the rambunctious, energetic
comedies in which she had starred a decade or so earlier. But by 1927
Constance, long since established as a major star, had matured without
losing any of her freshness and vivacity, and had demonstrated her ability
with subtle, sophisticated visual comedy. This film, like several of her
others at this time, is based on a Continental play. (Its plot, in which
Constance and Don Alvarado enter into a marriage simply to spite their
respective partners, reflects something of Constances casual attitude
toward marriage in real life!) Alvarado, a screen newcomer at this time,
received a career boost from the prestige of appearing in a Constance
Talmadge production.
Several other "funny ladies are also generously showcased here.
Alice White, near the beginning of her skyrocket film career, can be seen
in a role similar to those she continued to play into the early sound
era. Nellie Bly Baker, who had parlayed her professional association with
Chaplin into a modest film career, can be seen in a small role as Constances
maid. Best of all, Marie Dressler, effecting a comeback after years away
from the screen, has a small role too. Dressler makes only a couple of
appearances in the course of the film, but, veteran trouper that she is,
she makes the most of them. Watch especially for her reaction to a painful
experience in horseback riding!  JBK

Constance Talmadge (1897?/1899?-1973)
Nel riassumere la carriera della dotata famiglia Talmadge, Norma e Constance
in particolare, è facile cadere nella trappola degli stereotipi:
Norma la sorella affascinante, Constance quella comica. Ma sono generalizzazioni
fuorvianti. Altrove, in questa rassegna, vediamo Norma cavarsela egregiamente
con una comicità più fisica, mentre in Breakfast at Sunrise
e in molti altri film, Constancemostra di essere portata per la
commedia sofisticata e romantica. Forse, nel caso di Constance, il suo
tipo venne definito quando, ancora adolescente, cominciò a recitare
con modi da maschiaccio nei film della Vitagraph. Di certo in Intolerance
si calò perfettamente, e con risultati memorabili, nella parte
della Ragazza di Montagna dalla rustica comicità. Seguì
poi una serie di pellicole per Selznick, tutte, come ha osservato DeWitt
Bodeen, "molto in debito con la trama della Bisbetica domata."
Una serie successiva scritta da Anita Loos e John Emerson raffinò
ulteriormente la sua immagine, sfruttando il travolgente fascino maturato
interpretando soggetti imperniati sulla guerra tra i sessi. Affermata
stella della commedia leggera dalla metà alla fine degli anni 20,
lattrice poteva contare su una gamma recitativa completa che andava
dalla gag visiva pura ad una satira sofisticata e adulta. Breakfast
at Sunrise si pone a metà strada; i suoi altri successi del
periodo, molti dei quali diretti da Sidney Franklin, comprendono Her
Sister from Paris (La scuola delle mogli) e The Duchess of Buffalo
(Principessa Tutù). Allavvento del sonoro, Constance
decise che era giunto il momento di dire basta. Con la sicurezza che la
contraddistingueva, lasciò il cinema e non si volse più
indietro.  JBK
In summarizing the careers of the talented Talmadge family, particularly
Norma and Constance, its easy to fall into the trap of stereotypes:
Norma was the glamorous sister, Constance was the comedienne. But such
generalizations are misleading. Norma demonstrates elsewhere in this series
that she was fully capable of physical comedy, while Constance, in Breakfast
at Sunrise and so many other films, displays comedic gifts that run
to sophisticated romantic stories. Perhaps Constance was typed early in
her career, when she began to appear in Vitagraph films while still in
her teens, her tomboy tendencies still well in evidence. Certainly her
role as the Mountain Girl in Griffiths Intolerance called
for raucous, uncouth comedy, and she threw herself into it wholeheartedly,
with memorable results. There followed a series of program pictures for
Selznick, all of them, as DeWitt Bodeen observed, owing "more than
a minimum of their plot substance to Taming of the Shrew.
A later series written by Anita Loos and John Emerson further refined
Constances image, utilizing the devastating charm she had developed
as she matured in a series of comedies about the battle of the sexes.
By the mid- to late-1920s Constance was well established as a star of
light romantic fare, running the gamut from out-and-out sight gags to
sophisticated adult satire. Breakfast at Sunrise falls somewhere
in the middle of the scale; her other successes from this period, many
of them directed by Sidney Franklin, include Her Sister From Paris
and The Duchess of Buffalo. With the coming of sound, Constance
decided she had had enough. With characteristic self-assurance, she left
the film business and never looked back.  JBK

Nellie Bly Baker (1893-1984)
In origine segretaria al Chaplin Studio (in How to Make Movies,
la si vede mentre porta a Chaplin la posta del mattino) la severa Nellie
fece piccole ma significative apparizioni in The Kid(Il monello;
1921) e soprattutto in A Woman of Paris(Una donna di Parigi;
1923), che la condussero ad una breve carriera di caratterista negli anni
20; oltre a Breakfast at Sunrise, apparve tra laltro
in The Salvation Hunters (1925), di von Sternberg. La sua ultima
apparizione sullo schermo fu in Love and the Devil(La donna
e il diavolo; 1929), di Alexander Korda, nel ruolo della cameriera
di Maria Corda.  DR
Originally employed at the Chaplin Studio as secretary (she is seen bringing
Chaplin his morning mail in How To Make Movies), the stern-faced
Nellies brief but telling appearances in Chaplins The
Kid (1921) and especially A Woman of Paris (1923) led to a small
career as a character player throughout the 1920s, including, as well
as Breakfast at Sunrise, Von Sternbergs The Salvation
Hunters (1925). Her last screen appearance was in Alexander Kordas
Love And The Devil (1929), playing Maria Cordas maid.
 DR

Daphne Pollard and the admirable poker-faced Johnny Burke provided
the broader comedy for a series of two-reel college romps made by Sennett
in 1927-28. Generally the sweet, shy brunette Sally Eilers needed help
to wrest her beau (Matty Kemp) from the clutches of blonde and extrovert
Carole Lombard. Daphne Pollard characteristically played the stern headmistress
or (in Run Girl Run) the demanding gym mistress whose strict supervision
made the path of true love even more thorny. Here, though, Daphne has
a more sympathetic role as the college maid-of-all-work, herself browbeaten
by the dragon headmistress, battling with recalcitrant beds, and forever
striving to instil a little passion into her inexpert beau (Johnny Burke).
 DR

Carole Lombard (1908-1942)
Nata Jane Alice Peters a Fort Wayne, nellIndiana, Carole Lombard
in realtà avrebbe rivelato il suo talento di attrice brillante
solo in seguito, interpretando con straordinaria verve comica, al fianco
di John Barrymore, TwentiethCentury (Ventesimo secolo,
1934) di Howard Hawks. Particolarmente dotata per la "screwball comedy",
lattrice ebbe modo di sviluppare ulteriormente il suo talento comico
in film quali My Man Godfrey(Limpareggiabile Godfrey),NothingSacred (Nulla sul serio) e To Be or Not to Be
(Vogliamo vivere). Nel cinema muto, la Lombard (che aveva debuttato
nel 1921 cominciando ad apparire regolarmente sugli schermi a partire
dal 1925) venne usata principalmente nello stereotipo dellingenua,
con un surplus, nel suo caso, di avvenenza ed esuberanza; ed è
soprattutto in personaggi di questo tipo che la vediamo nella dozzina
circa di film da lei interpretati per Sennett nel biennio 1927-28. 
DR
Born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Carole Lombard was not,
in fact, revealed as a comedienne until her sparkling performance opposite
John Barrymore in Howard Hawks Twentieth Century (1934).
Her special talent for screwball comedy was to be further developed in
My Man Godfrey, Nothing Sacred, and To Be or Not to
Be. In silent films (she made her debut in 1921 and appeared regularly
from 1925) she was regarded as a standard, if unusually pretty and lively
ingenue; and it is in this character that she is seen in the dozen or
so films she made at the Sennett studios in 1927-28.  DR

According to Czech Feature Film I, 1898-1930 (Prague: Národní
Filmovy Archiv, 1995), this is "A mad comedy filmed in the style
of American slapstick comedies. Sculptor Johnny Miller returns home with
his drunken friends after a party and makes a bet that he can find his
way home blindfolded. However, instead of his house, he finds himself
in a cemetery where a band of villains led by the burglar Ransdorf are
holding a meeting. Because Johnny is still wearing the scarf over his
face which had been covering his eyes, the robbers take him for one of
them and they want him to rob the villa of Frank Sellins, guardian of
the wealthy orphan Lilly Ward. Various humorous intrigues follow during
which, for example, the guardian requests that burglar Johnny
steal his wards dowry with the promise that theyll share the
loot. Johnny, however, falls in love with Lilly, and devises a plan with
her whereby he actually steals the money. The real burglars and real policemen
become involved in the plot. Lilly is abducted but Johnny saves her at
the last moment and takes her into his arms. So much for the plot,
but actual viewing reveals much more about the film: Anny Ondra is outstandingly
beautiful and attractive, and the film is fast and rhythmic, interweaving
farcical situations in true Hollywood style, so skilfully that with the
American names given to the characters it could easily be mistaken for
an American production. The print is incomplete in some parts. 
LJ

Anny Ondráková (Anny Ondra) (1903-1987)
Figlia di un colonello dellesercito austro-ungarico, Anny Ondráková
nacque in Polonia, ma trascorse la fanciullezza a Pola e a Praga. Fin
dagli anni di scuola, dimostrò doti di attrice e studiò
danza al teatro Svanda. Sarà J.S. Kolár a darle, nel 1920,
il suo primo ruolo cinematografico, ma è quando Karel Lamac la
scrittura per Gilly v Praze (Gilly a Praga; 1920) che trova la
sua forma migliore. Lamac, che fu il suo primo marito, la diresse in 15
film muti in Cecoslavacchia e spesso recitò con lei in pellicole
firmate da Kolár e altri. Continuò a dirigerla anche dopo
lavvento del sonoro e anche dopo il divorzio avvenuto nel 1933,
quando lei si risposò con lex puglie Max Schmeling. Hitchcock
la portò in Inghilterra affidandole il ruolo di protagonista in
Blackmail (1929), ma facendola però doppiare. I suoi film
sonori sono per la gran parte di produzione tedesca. La sua ultima apparizione
è in Schön muss man sein (1951). Il suo talento versatile
e la delicatezza della sua recitazione permisero allattrice di passare
agevolmente dalle parti sentimentali a quelle brillanti.  DR
The daughter of a colonel in the Austro-Hungarian army, Anny Ondráková
was born in Poland but brought up in Pula and Prague. As a schoolgirl
she already showed a talent for the theatre, and was trained as a dancer
at the Svanda Theatre. She was given her first film role by J.S. Kolár
in 1920, but it was with Karel Lamac, who chose her for his Gilly
v Praze (1920), that she found her true form. Lamac, whom she married,
directed her in some 15 silent films in Czechoslovakia, and frequently
acted with her in pictures directed by Kolár and other directors.
With the coming of sound films Lamac continued to direct her, even after
their divorce in 1933, when she married the former prize-fighter, Max
Schmeling. Hitchcock took her to Britain to star in Blackmail (1929),
though her voice was dubbed; but most of her sound films were made in
Germany. Her last appearance was in Schön muss man sein (1951).
Anny Ondra had a delicate and versatile talent, and could play sentimental
roles as readily as light comedy.  DR

Steve Massa, in his article on Alice Howell in Slapstick!,
No. 4, 2001, considers this her best surviving comedy: "She plays
a waitress/cook at a crummy diner who gets fired and ends up as a maid
for a wealthy family. For a society party Alice and the butler (Dick Smith)
are enlisted to pose as the Count and Countess De Bunco, who are actually
crooks. Really the whole show, Alice is hilarious as she primps and flirts
with the customers in the diner, at one point even putting up a musical
chart and conducting their loud soup slurping. The film also gives
Alice opportunities for a delirious drunk scene, and a comedy dance routine
with her husband and stage partner Dick Smith.  DR

Between 1911 and 1913, when the firm went into liquidation, Lux produced
at least 26 films in the Cunégonde series. This one is exceptional
in having a more developed narrative than usual, a story that had its
origins in vaudeville and operetta and which would provide the plots for
scores of film comedies over the following decades.Cunégonde is first seen dressing up in her mistresss
best clothes. Walking down the street, she makes the acquaintance of an
elegant gentleman who takes her home to tea. Alas, the tea is interrupted
by the arrival of the "gentlemans master, who orders
him to remove his borrowed finery. The next day Cunégonde, in her
everyday servants clothes, meets yesterdays "gentleman,
now himself reduced to servant status. When Cunégonde assaults
him they are taken off to the police station, where Cunégonde decides
she likes him after all, even as a servant.  DR

CunégondeQuestattrice rimane un mistero: nessuno studioso è stato
in grado di scoprire la sua identità privata o il suo nome. In
genere era più scatenata di quanto non sia in questo film. Il suo
ruolo era sempre quello della serva benintenzionata ma stupida, i cui
sforzi hanno spesso per risultato la distruzione totale della bella casa
borghese dei padroni.  DR
This actress remains something of a mystery: no scholar has been able
to discover her private identity or name. Generally she was much more
knockabout in style than in this film. Her role was always that of the
servant, well-intentioned but stupid, whose best efforts frequently result
in the complete destruction of her employers beautiful bourgeois
home.  DR

Mr. and Mrs. Doodad read of a face-making competition and decide to
enter. Daisy Doodad is furious when her husband returns home having won
the prize, while she was forced to stay at home with a toothache. When
another competition is announced, she decides to try her luck, and rehearses
in a railway carriage, to the consternation of the other occupants. She
continues her experiments in the street, and is finally arrested for disturbing
the peace. The husband bails her out, but she accuses him of having her
arrested in a fit of jealousy. She departs in a huff for bed, and has
a nightmare in which a series of her own grotesque grimaces close in upon
her. The film concludes with Daisy making various faces direct to the
camera in close-up.BD
Directed by and starring Florence Turner [though officially credited to
Larry Trimble] the film revolves entirely around the actresss gift
for making funny faces or in this case, ghastly faces She
winds up scaring herself with a wonderful montage of Florence Turners.
The film ends with a huge close-up of Florence frightening the life out
of us.KB

Florence Turner (1885-1946)
Dopo quasi un secolo, la bellezza, il fascino, larguzia di Florence
Turner hanno ancora il potere di incantarci; e non è difficile
comprendere lattrazione che esercitò sulle platee agli inizi
del XX secolo e che fece di lei  conosciuta soltanto come "Vitagraph
girl"  la prima stella cinematografica americana. Figlia di
attori, recitava già a tre anni e sarà per lei motivo dorgoglio
aver lavorato in Richelieu a fianco di Sir Henry Irving nella sua
ultima tournée americana. Nel 1907 la Vitagraph la ingaggiò
come attrice, ma nelle pause di lavorazione doveva anche aiutare a cucire
i costumi. Il pubblico, peraltro, la consacrò spontaneamente al
ruolo di stella della compagnia. Era unattrice versatile, a suo
agio come Lucie in A Tale of Two Cities, Topsy in Uncle Toms
Cabin, Francesca da Rimini o nella commedia leggera di ambientazione
contemporanea. Senza dubbio esagerava quando dichiarò alla stampa
che, al momento di lasciare la Vitagraph, nel 1913, aveva recitato mille
parti, ma il numero e la varietà dei suoi ruoli rimangono comunque
sbalorditivi. Accompagnata dal regista Larry Trimble, giunse in Inghilterra
nel 1913 per portare in tournée uno spettacolo di vaudeville e
subito dopo fondò la Turner Films Ltd. I film prodotti e distribuiti
dalla compagnia, attraverso la Hepworth, furono tra le migliori produzioni
britanniche dellepoca. Florence Turner, che si occupò attivamente
di produzione e spesso curò lei stessa la regia, è giustamente
definita da Rachael Low come unattrice "sia comica sia drammatica,
con una grande passione per il trucco elaborato." Tra i principali
film del suo periodo inglese vi furono: Far from the Madding Crowd
(1915), adattamento del romanzo di Thomas Hardy; My Old Dutch (1915),
in cui recitò con Albert Chevalier, che aveva creato lomonima
canzone, e per cui lei commissionò una partitura basata sulle melodie
del music-hall; East Is East (1916), dove interpreta una ragazza
londinese che lavora nei campi di luppolo, con una giovane Edith Evans
nei panni della madre cockney. Ma soprattutto si vorrebbe poterla riscoprire
in Florence Turner Impersonates Film Favourites (1914).
Quando la crisi economica colpì, nel 1916, lindustria cinematografica
britannica, Florence Turner e Larry Trimble ritornarono in America, ma
lei non riuscì più ad avere lo stesso successo. Man mano
che passava il tempo lex "Vitagraph Girl" riusciva a trovare
sempre meno i ruoli secondari; Marion Davies la volle comunque in Janice
Meredith(Lombra di Washington; 1924) e lei continuò
a fare qualche sporadica e fugace apparizione sullo schermo fino ai primi
anni Quaranta.  DR
After almost a century, Florence Turners beauty, charm, and wit
still have the power to delight; and it is not difficult to understand
the fascination she held for audiences at the start of the 20th
Century, who made her  identified only as "The Vitagraph Girl
Americas first movie star. The child of actors, she was on the stage
from the age of 3, and was proud to have played alongside Sir Henry Irving
in Richelieu on his last American tour. In 1907 she joined Vitagraph,
doing duty as wardrobe assistant as well as actress. Quickly however,
the public spontaneously made her the companys outstanding female
star. She was a resourceful actress, as much at ease as Lucy in A
Tale of Two Cities, Topsy in Uncle Toms Cabin, Francesca
da Rimini, or in light contemporary comedy. No doubt she was exaggerating
when she told the press that she had played a thousand roles by the time
she left Vitagraph in 1913, but the number and range of her roles was
still phenomenal.Accompanied by the director Larry Trimble, she arrived in England
in 1913 to embark on a vaudeville tour, and soon afterwards established
Turner Films Ltd. The films that the company produced and released through
Hepworth were among the best British productions of the period. Florence
Turner, who took an active part in the production and often herself directed,
is justly characterized by Rachael Low as "both a light comedienne
and a dramatic actress with a great fondness for elaborate make-up.
Among notable films of her British period were an adaptation of Thomas
Hardys Far from the Madding Crowd (1915); My Old Dutch
(1915), in which she co-starred with Albert Chevalier, who had created
the eponymous song, and for which she commissioned a musical score made
up of music-hall melodies; and East Is East (1916), in which she
plays a London girl employed in the hop-fields, with the young Edith Evans
cast as her cockney mother. Above all, one might well yearn to rediscover
her 1914 Florence Turner Impersonates Film Favourites.When economic crisis struck the British film industry in 1916,
Florence Turner and Larry Trimble returned to America; but she was never
able to re-establish her career or her popularity there. As time went
on she found fewer and fewer secondary roles, though Marion Davies gave
her a part in Janice Meredith and the one-time "Vitagraph
Girl continued to make occasional, though ever more fleeting, screen
appearances until the early 1940s.  DR

It is revealing to compare The Danger Girl with Das Liebes-ABC,
from the same year; and observe the different styles of Gloria Swanson
and Asta Nielsen in extracting comedy and irony from male impersonation.
Although the story of this quite elaborate Keystone comedy is somewhat
muddled, Clarence Badger provides Swanson with fine comic opportunities,
as a young woman determined to frustrate the "danger girl who
is bent upon stealing her sisters boyfriend.  DR

Despite his phenomenal output (between 1913 and 1920 he directed more
than 100 films for Nordisk) Lau Lauritzen sustained a very high level
of pace and performance in his comedies. In this brisk and charming little
farce about marital mix-ups, Messrs. Storch and Sondergard are business
partners (the Expressionist-style first view of them at their desks is
memorable). Mr. Storch has a birthday, which everyone duly honours; but
Mr. Sondergard has forgotten his wedding anniversary, to the chagrin of
his wife. When Sondergard eventually remembers, however, his forgiving
wife sends him a bouquet with an affectionate message. Meanwhile, Mrs.
Storch sends a message to her husband, proposing a rendezvous for that
afternoon. Naturally, the message and the bouquet get mixed up, provoking
marital crises all round.
(Note: The actors in this film, Lauritz Olsen and Rasmus Christiansen,
were certainly stage players, who made occasional films during the 1920s
and 30s.)  DR

James Finlayson plays a bumbling lawyer who is always getting the
seat of his pants burned at the domestic fireside. When his daughters
fiancé asks him to get rid of a ferocious breach-of-promise claimant,
Finlayson finds himself caught up with the lady himself, and has to face
the consequences of staying out all night with her. As the office boy,
Spec ODonnell is a permanent nuisance, with his well-meant efforts
to forewarn Finlayson of the perils of newspaper stories and jealous wives.The
director Richard E. Wallace (1894-1951) abandoned a medical career to
become a cutter and jack-of-all-trades at the Mack Sennett Studios. In
1925-26 he made a handful of Universal Bluebird comedies, of which this
is one, before definitively embarking on his feature career with McFaddens
Flats (1927). His major success came in the sound era, when his films
included The Shopworn Angel, Innocents of Paris, The
Masquerader, and The Little Minister.  DR

Martha Sleeper (1907-1983).
La bellla ed elegante Martha Sleeper appare qui solo in un ruolo di contorno.
Gli anni tra il 1924 ed il 1928, quelli in cui lavorò nei cortometraggi
comici, rappresentano una parentesi in una carriera variegata, dal modesto
successo. Aveva esordito professionalmente come ballerina, ma già
nel 1927 le sue interpretazioni cinematografiche avevano lasciato il segno
tanto che fu nominata "Wampas Baby" insieme ad Helene Costello,
Barbara Kent e Gwen Lee. Nel 1924 era apparsa accanto a Buddy Messinger
in una serie di Century Comedies, in cui recitava talora lo straordinario
Spec ODonnell, che compare anche in questo film. Nello stesso anno
passò ai Roach Studios, dove fece diversi film della serie "Our
Gang" e divenne la partner abituale, e notevolmente ardita, di Charley
Chase. Uno dei suoi più memorabili ruoli comici, al fianco di Max
Davidson, è quello di Pass the Gravy (1928). Continuò
a recitare regolarmente nei lungometraggi fino al 1936, dopodiché,
fino a tutti gli anni 40, lavorò soprattutto a Broadway.
Ritornò a Hollywood per una parte di caratterista in The Bells
of St Marys(Le campane di Santa Maria; 1945). Alcune
fonti propongono date di nascita alternative, quali il 1900 od il 1904.
 DR
The graceful and beautiful Martha Sleeper is here seen only in a supporting
role. The years that she worked in comedy shorts, between 1924 and 1928,
were an interval in a varied and modestly successful career. Her earliest
professional work was as a dancer, but by 1927 she had already made enough
of a mark in films to be nominated a "Wampas Baby alongside
Helene Costello, Barbara Kent, and Gwen Lee. In 1924 she partnered Buddy
Messinger in a series of films for Century Comedies; the casts sometimes
included the redoubtable Spec ODonnell, also seen in this film.
The same year she moved to the Roach Studios to appear in several Our
Gang films and as a regular and notably brave partner to Charley Chase.
One of her most memorable comedy roles is alongside Max Davidson in Pass
the Gravy (1928). She continued to play regularly in features until
1936, but from this time and throughout the 1940s she principally worked
on Broadway. She returned to Hollywood for a comeback in a character role
in The Bells of St. Marys (1945). Various sources give alternative
dates of birth as 1900 or 1904.  DR

The novel plot of Engelein gives Asta Nielsen scope for both
farce and sophisticated comedy, with some piquant undertones of paedophilia.
An opening flashback reveals that deception and delay in revealing her
birth means that, 12 years later, her rich American uncle believes "the
little angel to be 4 years younger than she actually is. Hence,
when uncle arrives in Europe, the precocious 16-year-old must pretend
to be only 12, still wearing little-girl dresses and hugging teddy bears.
Asta is constantly making quicksilver shifts between the two ages, and
sometimes gets deliriously mixed up, as she hides her cigarette or, in
the street, rather forgets her new dolly as her eye catches that of a
promising young man. Things become even more complicated when the Little
Angel falls in love with uncle. The film was such a success that it was
followed by a sequel, Engeleins Hochzeit (1914; US title: The
Little Angels Wedding).  DR

Asta Nielsen (1881-1972)
La più spassosa di tutte le Funny Ladies, Asta Nielsen sembra talmente
a suo agio nelle commedie che è quasi impossibile credere che questa
sia la diva che conosciamo per le interpretazioni di Strindberg, Ibsen,
Wedekind, Dostojevskij, Schnitzler e Shakespeare, e che diede al cinema
una nuova, potente carica di erotismo. Essa è la dimostrazione
inoppugnabile che la grande commedia richiede grandi doti recitative,
ed è indubbiamente una grande artista, proprio come vuole la leggenda.
Fu la prima attrice a comprendere appieno il mezzo cinematografico e a
metterlo al servizio della sua arte, anche se la sua formazione era di
tipo teatrale.
Figlia di una lavandaia di Copenaghen, frequentò i corsi del Kongelige
Teater e a 18 anni fu ingaggiata dal Dagmarteatret. Era già una
popolare e ben pagata attrice di teatro quando, a 27 anni, August Blom
la scritturò per il cinema. Il suo primo film, Afgrunden(Abisso), del 1910, fu un trionfo e segnò linizio
della sua collaborazione con il regista Urban Gad, che sposò nel
1912. Prima del loro divorzio nel 1914, Gad la diresse in tutti i suoi
film, più di trenta, ad eccezione di Ballet danserinen (La ballerina),
firmato da Blom. Dal 1911 la coppia lavorò in Germania, dove la
Nielsen rimase per il resto della sua prolifica carriera cinematografica.
Tale carriera si concluse praticamente nel 1927, benché lattrice
abbia interpretato il film sonoro nel 1932 di Erich Waschneck Unmögliche
Liebe (Lamore impossibile), in cui veniva affrontato un tema
che laveva sempre affascinata: quello della donna anziana che non
vuole rinunciare allamore. Lavorò in teatro in Germania fino
al 1936, poi, nonostante le lusinghe di Josef Goebbels, ritornò
a Copenaghen e continuò a calcare le scene fino alla fine degli
anni 30. Condusse uno stile di vita coraggiosamente indipendente:
ebbe una figlia illegittima, nata, a quanto si dice, da una relazione
con il suo professore alla scuola di teatro; il terzo dei suoi cinque
mariti fu lesule russo Grigorij Chmara, anchegli attore; lultimo,
che sposò a 87 anni, era un mercante darte di Copenaghen
di 18 anni più giovane di lei.  DR
The funniest of Funny Ladies, when Asta Nielsen plays comedy she seems
so much in her own element that it is almost impossible to imagine that
this is the diva that we know in Strindberg, Ibsen, Wedekind, Dostoievski,
Schnitzler, and Shakespeare, and who gave the cinema a new and potent
eroticism. She conclusively demonstrates that great comedy is great acting;
and she is undoubtedly a great artist: the legend is not overstated. She
was the first actress wholly to understand and engage with the cinema
medium, even though her formation was in the theatre.The daughter of a Copenhagen washerwoman, she was accepted into
the childrens school of the Royal Theatre and was engaged by the
Dagmarteatret at the age of 18. She was already 27 and a popular and highly-paid
stage star when August Blom recruited her to the cinema. Her first film,
Afgrunden (The Abyss; 1910), was a triumph, and established
her partnership with the director Urban Gad, whom she married in 1912.
Gad directed all but one of her films (more than 30 in number) before
their divorce in 1914 (the exception was Bloms Ballet danserinen
[The Ballet Dancer]). From 1911 the couple worked in Germany, where
Nielsen remained for the rest of her prolific screen career. That career
virtually ended in 1927, though she starred in one talking picture, Unmögliche
Liebe (Impossible Love), directed by Erich Waschneck in 1932, which
treated a theme which persistently fascinated her  an ageing woman
reluctant to give up love. She continued to act on stage in Germany until
1936, when, despite the blandishments of Josef Goebbels, she returned
to Copenhagen, where she worked in the theatre until the end of the 1930s.
Fearlessly independent in her lifestyle, her illegitimate daughter was
believed to have been fathered by her professor at the Royal Theatre School.
The third of her five husbands was the émigré Russian actor
Grigori Chmara; the last, whom she married at the age of 87, was a Copenhagen
art dealer 18 years her junior.  DR

Beatrice Lillies character Violet, maid to a touring theatrical
companys inebriated leading lady, is introduced in an intertitle
as "the drudge of the troupe who also played parts like Nothing
in Much Ado About Nothing. After seeing the splendidly funny
Exit Smiling, we can only express regret and amazement that the
stage comedienne also played Nothing (or next to Nothing) in films as
well.Exit Smiling was her film debut, and MGM took care to entrust it
to comedy experts. Playwright and humorist Marc Connelly, then in the
middle of his successful partnership with George S. Kaufman, provided
the ingenious original story. Sam Taylor and Tim Whelan, who had worked
hard and imaginatively for Harold Lloyd, took care of the final script.
But as we watch all eyes remain on Beatrice Lillie as the aspiring Sarah
Bernhardt of DeWitt Jennings dismal but plucky band of players,
touring America by train.Absence of sound proves no handicap at all: Lillie communicates
effortlessly through her droll and voluble gestures, looks, and mouthed
sentences. Like all great clowns of silent cinema she is constantly flummoxed
by everyday objects. Clothes and accessories repeatedly fall off her lanky
frame (feather boas especially); her climactic seduction scene involves
a furious battle with a collapsing curtain-rail, and incarceration in
an earthenware pot. Lillies Violet remains indomitable, steering
a path through the trail of accidents with dotty elegance and the same
dogged faith that keeps the character blind to the real feelings of Jack
Pickford, the troubled bank clerk she sets her heart on.Yet this film has more to offer than one luminously crazy star
performer. Its theatrical world is precisely evoked; you can almost smell
the greasepaint and powder. The troupes melodrama, Flaming Women,
never strays into blatant caricature; while the backstage dressing rooms
and the train compartment are a wonderful riot of theatrical and domestic
bric-a-brac, walls and doors plastered with photos and chalked messages
such as "Dont waste soap.Much credit for the films delights is also due to Sam Taylor,
a man still popularly and slightingly known mainly for his "additional
dialogue credit on the Fairbanks/Pickford Taming of the Shrew.
Yet study of his work in the 1920s reveals a filmmaker of considerable
subtlety, able to combine sprightly comedy with a fluid visual style.
Scenes like Lillie and Jack Pickfords acting lesson among chickens,
munching goats, and surging pigs remain object lessons in the timing of
gags and the positioning of the camera. But Taylor also shapes quieter
moments with care and sensitivity, leaving us at the end not with a final
joke but an affecting, lingering shot of Violet  speedily deserted
by the hero, peering ironically at the vamp costume that brought about
his salvation. "Audiences wont like that ending, mused
the Variety reviewer in November 1926. Still, its one more
thing that sets the film apart as something special.  GB

This contemporary promotion reel celebrates a daring rather than a
funny lady, and was clearly compiled in tribute to the skill and courage
of Emilie Sannon, which earned her the nickname "The Daredevil of
the Movies. The clips are mostly from productions by Filmfabrikken
Danmark, and show Emilie Sannon performing stunts on windmills, church
towers, and elsewhere. A sequence showing Emilie letting herself fall
from an airplane after her parachute has filled with air is from the Italian
production La fanciulla dellaria (1923), directed by Alfred
Lind. Other extracts are from Pigen fra hidalgo fyret (1914), Dilligencekusken
fra san hilo (1914), Zigo (1914), For barnets skyld (1915),
Panopta II (1918), and Panopta IV (1919).  DR

Emilie Sannon (1886-1931)
Giunse in Florida da bambina, quando i suoi genitori vi si trasferirono
per lavorare nella fattoria dello zio paterno Johan Sannon. Otto anni
più tardi la famiglia fece ritorno in Danimarca, dove, poco dopo,
Emilie debuttò sulle scene al Dagmarteatret, in cui lavorava anche
Asta Nielsen. Nel 1906-7 andò in tournée con il Danske Teaterselskab,
ancora con la Nielsen. Debuttò nel cinema nel 1908 o 1909, lavorando
in seguito per molte case di produzione, tra cui la Biorama, la Nordisk
Films Kompagni e la Kosmorama, dove ottenne una parte in Afgrunden
(Abisso), il film del 1910 di Urban Gad che fece di Asta Nielsen una diva
del cinema. Apparve anche nel primo film sceneggiato da Carl Th. Dreyer,
Bryggerens datter (La figlia del birraio), 1912. In quello stesso
anno cominciò a farsi conoscere per gli audaci numeri acrobatici
eseguiti nei "film a sensazione" della Filmfabrikken Danmark
/ Skandinavisk-Russisk Handelshus. Recitò da protagonista in due
popolari serial, Nattens datter (La figlia della notte), uscito
in 4 parti nel 1916-17, e Panopta, pure in quattro parti (1918-1919).
Girò anche, nel 1920-21, due film in Germania. La sua ultima apparizione
sullo schermo risale al 1923, in La fanciulla dellaria di
Alfred Lind, dopodiché continuò dar prova della sua audacia
nel corso di spericolate esibizioni aeree. Morì nel 1931, in un
incidente causato dalla mancata apertura del paracadute. Sebbene non fosse
sposata e vivesse con in genitori, tranne quandera in tournée,
nel 1912 ebbe una figlia, nata dalla sua relazione con lattore Axel
Carl Schulz. Tra il 1910 ed il 1918, anche sua sorella Ragnhild lavorò
come attrice per la Filmfabrikken Danmark, la Dania Biofilm, la Record
Film e soprattutto la Nordisk Films Kompagni.  DR
Emilie Sannon was taken to Florida as a child when her parents went to
work on the farm of her paternal uncle Johan Sannon. Eight years later
the family returned to Denmark, where Emilie made her stage debut shortly
afterwards at the Dagmarteatret, where Asta Nielsen also worked. In 1906-7
she toured with Det Danske Teaterselskab, again with Asta Nielsen. She
made her film debut in 1908 or 1909, and went on to work for many companies,
including Biorama, Nordisk Films Kompagni, and Kosmorama, where she had
a part in Urban Gads Afgrunden (The Abyss; 1910),
the film that launched Asta Nielsens film fame. She also appeared
in the first film written by Carl Th. Dreyer, Bryggerens Datter
(The Brewers Daughter; 1912). From 1912 she began to acquire a reputation
for her daredevil stunts in "sensation-films from Filmfabrikken
Danmark / Skandinavisk-Russisk Handelshus. She starred in two popular
serials, Nattens Datter (Daughter of the Night), released in 4
parts in 1916-17, and Panopta (The Woman Who Sees All), also in
4 parts (1918-1919). She also made two films in Germany in 1920-21. She
made her last film appearance in 1923, in Alfred Linds La fanciulla
dellaria, after which she mainly worked as a daredevil in aerial
shows. She died in 1931, in an accident when her parachute failed to open.
Though Emilie Sannon never married, living at home with her parents except
when on tour, she had one daughter, born 1912, by the actor Axel Carl
Schulz. Her sister Ragnhild Sannon was also an actress between 1910 and
1918, at Filmfabrikken Danmark, Dania Biofilm, Record Film, and especially
Nordisk Films Kompagni.  DR

Two widely separated schools of American film comedy intersect in
Footloose Widows. The unquestioned star of the film is Louise Fazenda,
she of the gawky, ungainly country-girl Keystone roles. But this story
is a long way from Keystone; in spirit its far more akin to the
hard-bitten Depression comedies that Warners would produce in the early
sound era. It bears, in fact, a striking resemblance to Havana Widows,
a 1933 Warners film starring the team of Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell
(and inaugurating a series featuring the same team). Like the later film,
Footloose Widows is built around two women who fleece an unsuspecting
man and escape to a distant resort hotel, there to trap one or two rich
husbands. Like the later film its somewhat unkindly written, with
a clear distinction between Jacqueline Logan as The Pretty One and Louise
Fazenda as The Funny One. (The story begins with both girls as models
in Douglas Gerrards establishment, but only Jacqueline is seen modeling
and we only learn later on, via intertitles, that Louise was a model too.)
Like the later film, its packed with cynical wisecracks and revels
in the humiliation of pompous, ridiculous men at the hands of the two
girls. Its worth noting that Footloose Widows was written
by Darryl Zanuck, the man who would be so largely responsible for the
distinctive Warners style of the late 1920s and early 30s.To those familiar with Louise Fazenda primarily from her Sennett
days, her performance here is a revelation. This is no slapstick simpleton
but a shrewd, energetic, calculating woman, and Fazenda is firmly in control
of the role and the film. Several scenes are specifically constructed
to allow her comedy set-pieces, and in one surprising scene she effectively
works her seductive wiles on Gerrard. Mention should be made, too, of
Jacqueline Logan, who is not remembered primarily as a "funny lady
but who is fully up to the challenge, working expertly here in tandem
with Fazenda. Logan was nothing if not versatile; within a year of Footloose
Widows her other roles included a scheming home-wrecker in The
Wise Wife, a womens-rights advocate in For Ladies Only,
and Mary Magdalene in The King of Kings!Other matters of interest include the flashback sequence, which
is clearly gratuitous and inserted for the benefit of Mack Swain, who
plays Logans (imaginary) late husband and is not otherwise seen
in the film. (Swain had been Fazendas regular co-star in her earliest
films for Sennett in 1915, and was currently enjoying a comeback after
appearing in Chaplins The Gold Rush.) The opening montage
of Broadway lights is of interest too; its far more extensive than
most such sequences and includes glimpses of a good half-dozen New York
movie palaces (naturally including the Warner, showing the studios
recent Rin-Tin-Tin picture The Night Cry), along with several "legitimate
houses. At least one reviewer commented on Warners "free advertising"
for the current shows.  JBK

Jacqueline Logan (1902-1983)
Nata in Texas, studiò danza e canto, diventando una Ziegfeld Girl.
Esordì sullo schermo nel 1921 e nello stesso anno ebbe un ruolo
di contorno in Molly O, con Mabel Normand. Continuò
a lavorare nel cinema fino ai primi anni del sonoro.  DR
Born in Texas, Jacqueline Logan studied dancing and singing, and became
a Ziegfeld Girl. She made her first appearance in films in 1921, and the
same year appeared in a supporting role in Molly O, with
Mabel Normand. She remained in films into the early sound period.
 DR

Gigettas jealous husband doctors her shoes so that she will
leave tracks to inform him of all her peregrinations. Gigetta realizes
her husbands ruse, and so when she goes shopping makes various detours
to lead him into inconvenient locations (among cleaning ladies and boxers)
and such hazards as a narrow board across water. Finally she presses the
soles of her shoes on his face, and scolds him fiercely. They are reconciled,
however, and find themselves laughing together over the incidents. Gigetta
vividly conveys to the audience her pleasure in her own cunning and the
tricks with which she leads her husband astray.  DR

Photoplay said that the playing of Adolphe Menjou and Florence Vidor
was "like bubbles in champagne. Their teaming is an enthralling
contest to see who can achieve the maximum effect with the slightest means.
Menjou, barely perceptibly, lifts an eyebrow or faintly twitches a lip;
Vidor responds with the extra fraction of a second more that she holds
a glance or a glare, or with a momentary stiffening of her beautiful shoulder.
This is, perhaps, the most subtle, elegant comedy of the whole silent
cinema. Savoirs play is all froth: Menjou plays an immensely rich
playboy who falls head over heels with the exiled White Russian Grand
Duchess Zenia. She is living in a Parisian grand hotel, maintaining an
imperial lifestyle for herself and her dreadful hangers-on by selling
the last of her family jewels. To be near his loved one, the playboy poses
as a floor waiter  naturally a very inept one. At once outraged
and fascinated, the Grand Duchess hires him for her personal staff, so
that she can devise various ruses to humiliate him. When she discovers
his true identity she is mortified and flees, but he tracks her down to
where she is struggling to make ends meet by running a roadside hostelry.Three-quarters of a century on, a contemporary critics comment
remains sympathetic, though one might question his definition of "natural:
"It is a pattern on which to make motion pictures, as it has no fires,
floods, or automobile accidents. It is just a jolly, natural story.
 DR

Florence Vidor (1895-1977)
Florence Cobb allanagrafe (anche se il cognome fu mutato in Arto
quando la madre si risposò), si sposò con King Vidor nel
1915. I due arrivarono a Hollywood in luna di miele, appena in tempo (così
vuole la leggenda) per lavorare come comparse in Intolerance. Dopo
aver recitato in ruoli secondari alla Vitagraph, Florence si impose alla
Fox con A Tale of Two Cities di Frank Lloyd (1917). Passata alla
Famous Players, apparve in due film di De Mille e poi recitò in
una serie di film diretti da King Vidor (alcuni dei quali prodotti dalle
rispettive case) prima di divorziare da lui nel 1923. Dopo la significativa
apparizione in Alice Adams (1923) di Rowland V. Lee, il suo elegante
senso comico fu sfruttato da Ernst Lubitsch in The Marriage Circle
(Matrimonio in quattro; 1924) ed ulteriormente affinato da Malcolm
St. Clair in Are Parents People? (1925) e in The Grand Duchess
and the Waiter (1926), con il consolidamento dellaffiatato duo
Florence Vidor-Adolphe Menjou. In seguito formò una romantica coppia
cinematografica con Clive Brook. I suoi ultimi film muti comprendono The
Magnificent Flirt(Femminilità) di Harry DAbbadie
DArrast, Doomsday (Nido damore) di Rowland V. Lee,
con Gary Cooper, e The Patriot (Lo czar folle) di Lubitsch, con
Emil Jannings. Una sola, infelice prova in un film parzialmente parlato,
Chinatown Nights (1929) di William Wellman, concluse la sua carriera
cinematografica. Dopo il divorzio da Vidor sposò George Fitzmaurice
e poi, nel 1928, il violinista Jascha Heifetz (da cui divorziò
nel 1945).  DR
Born Florence Cobb (though the family name was changed to Arto when her
mother remarried), Florence Vidor was honeymooning with her new husband
King when the couple arrived in Hollywood in 1915, just in time (so the
legend goes) to find work as extras in Intolerance. Having acted
in supporting roles at Vitagraph, she first made her mark at Fox, in Frank
Lloyds A Tale of Two Cities (1917). Moving on to Famous Players,
she appeared in two De Mille films, and then played in a series of pictures
directed by King Vidor (some of them for their own production companies),
before their divorce in 1923. After a notable appearance in Rowland V.
Lees Alice Adams (1923), her elegant sense of comedy was
exploited by Ernst Lubitsch in The Marriage Circle (1924); and
further developed by Malcolm St. Clair in Are Parents People? (1925)
and The Grand Duchess and the Waiter (1926), consolidating the
inspired teaming of Florence Vidor and Adolphe Menjou. Subsequently she
formed a successful on-screen romantic partnership with Clive Brook. Her
last silent films included Harry dAbbadie dArrasts The
Magnificent Flirt, Rowland V. Lees Doomsday, with Gary
Cooper, and Lubitschs The Patriot, with Emil Jannings. A
single unhappy trial with a part-dialogue film, William Wellmans
Chinatown Nights (1929), ended her screen career. Following the
divorce from Vidor she married George Fitzmaurice, and subsequently, in
1928, the violinist Jascha Heifetz (they divorced in 1945). 
DR

Laurette Taylor was already 40 when she made this screen adaptation
of her second great stage success (the play was premiered at the Cort
Theatre, New York, on 6 March 1914, and was presented in London at the
St Jamess Theatre the following year), but is wholly convincing
and irresistibly charming as Jenny, the cheerful, dripping-nosed and socially
graceless shopgirl, who is taken up by a well-intentioned couple from
New Yorks idle rich. The association improves the rich folks
lives as well as the lot of Jenny, who meets and marries an amiable electrician.
Years later the four meet again and recall their experiences, to benefit
a new waif. The future gossip-columnist Hedda Hopper, still a movie ingénue,
makes a lively appearance as a flighty society girl.  DR

Laurette Taylor (1884-1946)
Ladolescente Laurette Cooney fuggì di casa e da un padre
tiranno per calcare, ma senza molta fortuna, le scene. A 16 anni sposò
il drammaturgo Charles A. Taylor; dopo il divorzio avvenuto nel 1908,
Laurette continuò a lavorare con alterno successo fino a che, nel
1911, sposò un altro drammaturgo, J. Hartley Manners, che nel giro
di pochi mesi scrisse il più grande successo delle loro carriere,
Peg del mio cuore. Dopo 600 rappresentazioni a New York, Laurette
portò il testo in scena a Londra dove andò altrettanto bene
e fu replicato per ben 500 volte. Ormai affermata, godette di un lungo
periodo di successo, soprattutto con opere di Manners e nei tardi anni
20 era ormai una stella di prima grandezza su entrambe le sponde
dellAtlantico. La morte di Manners nel 1928 fu per lei un colpo
tremendo che la prostrò fisicamente e psicologicamente, rendendola
incapace di lavorare. Nel 1938 non trovava ormai più scritture
a New York e doveva accontentarsi di quello che le offrivano i teatri
estivi. Tornò temporaneamente a galla nel 1939, quando venne rimesso
in scena Viaggio verso lignoto, ma fu solo verso la fine
della sua vita che ebbe un ultimo, gratificante trionfo nella parte di
Amanda Blake nello Zoo di vetro. Interpretò solo tre film,
tutti e tre tratti da successi teatrali di Manners: Peg O My
Heart(Peg del mio cuore) e Happiness (1924) furono
entrambi diretti da King Vidor, mentre One Night in Rome (1924)
fu firmato da Clarence Badger.  DR
The early teenage Laurette Cooney ran away from home and her puritanical
father to go on the stage, but had little luck until she married, at 16,
the playwright Charles A. Taylor. They divorced in 1908, and Laurette
struggled on with intermittent success until in 1911 she married another
playwright, J. Hartley Manners, who within a few months wrote the play
that would be the greatest success of both their careers, Peg O
My Heart. After 600 performances in New York, Laurette brought the
play to London, where she enjoyed equal success, with a run of 500 performances.
Her reputation now assured, she enjoyed a long run of successes, many
of them new works by Manners, and by the late 1920s was a major star on
both sides of the Atlantic. The death of Manners in 1928, however, proved
a devastating blow which left Laurette in poor physical and psychological
condition. Thus disabled, by 1938 she could find no employment in New
York, and took what work she could in summer theatres. She enjoyed a temporary
comeback with a revival of Outward Bound in 1939; but it was not
until the end of her life, with her creation of the character of Amanda
Blake in The Glass Menagerie that she enjoyed a gratifying final
triumph. She made only three films, all based on the stage successes written
by Manners: Peg O My Heart and Happiness (1924) were
both directed by King Vidor; One Night in Rome (1924) was directed
by Clarence Badger.  DR

Eddie Cline casts his Keystone comics in somewhat offbeat roles. Ford
Sterling offers an unusually sophisticated performance as the bandleader
in a restaurant, who spurns the advances of Louise Fazenda, the flower-girl
who yearns for him. He changes tack, however, when someone plays a hoax
by reporting that the flower-girl is heiress to two million dollars, and
abandons his girlfriend to pursue Fazenda. In a somewhat obscure effort
to put things right, Phyllis Haver dresses as a boy  provoking two
girls to deride "him as a "pansy. The presence of
Fazendas family at the wedding produces chaos, and results in the
worsting of the odious bandleader.  DR

Few actors are given creative control over their films, and child
players in particular are at the mercy of whatever material their producers
consider suitable. So we can be doubly grateful that Baby Peggy Montgomery
is represented by this charming, forgotten little gem of a film. Some
of Baby Peggys films were, inevitably, typically forgettable child-star
fare. Captain January (1924), for example, is tedious going for
any but a strictly juvenile audience. But Helens Babies was
directed by William A. Seiter, who had, as William K. Everson has written,
"the happy knack of being able to present contemporary life and human
foibles in dramatic or amusing ways, without distorting them or blowing
them up to typically Hollywoodian proportions. Helens
Babies is hardly one of Seiters best-remembered features, but
it aptly demonstrates his skill and taste.The films basic situation  a childless writer, author
of a book on child care, placed for the first time in charge of two precocious
children  could easily have become an unpleasant showdown between
harried adult and sadistic hellions. But as played by Baby Peggy and an
already recognizable Edward Everett Horton, its something far more
engaging than that. Five-year-old Baby Peggy is clearly up to the acting
challenge, convincingly playing a child who is not malicious or even particularly
mischievous, but well-meaning, resourceful, and simply prone to understandable
childlike errors of judgment. She and Horton, the real stars of the film
(official billing notwithstanding), make a delightful team, and their
gradual bonding by films end is quite believable, while avoiding
the other obvious trap of excessive sentimentality.The film also
features fellow child player Jean Carpenter as Peggys sister and
offers, as a bonus, an early appearance by Clara Bow. Perhaps because
it was an independent production, Helens Babies was ignored
or casually dismissed by reviewers and has vanished into obscurity since
1924. Happily, it survives as a charming example of the early directorial
work of William Seiter  and of the talent of a pint-sized, but hugely
talented, Funny Lady.  JBK

Baby Peggy (Montgomery) [Diana Serra Cary](1918)
Nata a Hollywood, dove suo padre, cavallerizzo, lavorava come controfigura
di Tom Mix, la piccola Peggy Montgomery si trovò davanti alla cinepresa
per la prima volta a 19 mesi e divenne rapidamente una popolare diva dello
schermo. Come "Baby Peggy" apparve in dozzine di commediole
prodotte dallindipendente Century, dapprima a supporto della star
canina dello studio, Brownie, e poi come stella della serie a lei intitolata.
Nelle sue comiche, Peggy faceva la parodia dei lungometraggi contemporanei
più popolari o proponeva fiabe tradizionali, lavorando con stelle
come Alf Goulding e Blanche Payson. Era anche tra i soggetti preferiti
di Screen Snapshots ed altre serie hollywoodiane girate dietro
le quinte. Passando ai lungometraggi nel 1923, Peggy continuò ad
affascinare il pubblico fino alla fine degli anni 20, poi subì
il fato inevitabile di unartista bambina: divenne adulta. Continuò
comunque a mantenere rapporti con il mondo dello spettacolo, esibendosi
a teatro e facendo occasionali apparizioni in ruoli da adolescente nei
film sonori. Adesso è una scrittrice specializzata nella storia
del Messico e del West. Con il nome di Diana Serra Cary ha pubblicato
unautobiografia, Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy?, ed un
libro su un altro argomento che conosce bene: il fenomeno delle star bambine.
 JBK
Born in Hollywood, where her father was a riding double for Tom Mix, little
Peggy Montgomery stepped before a camera for the first time at the age
of 19 months and quickly became a popular child star. As "Baby Peggy
she appeared in dozens of short comedies for the independent Century studio,
first in support of the studios canine star Brownie and later as
the star of her own series. In her starring comedies Peggy spoofed popular
contemporary features and acted out traditional fairy tales, and worked
alongside comedy luminaries Alf Goulding and Blanche Payson. She was also
a favorite subject for Screen Snapshots and other behind-the-scenes
Hollywood series.Graduating to features in 1923, Peggy continued
to charm audiences well into the late 1920s, but eventually suffered the
inevitable fate of a child star: she grew up. Even then she maintained
her connection with show business, performing on stage and making occasional
appearances in sound films as a teenager. In more recent years she has
become a freelance writer specializing in Mexican and Western American
history. As Diana Serra Cary she has published an autobiography, Whatever
Happened to Baby Peggy?, and a book on another subject she knows well:
the phenomenon of the child star.  JBK

Today the Drews do not strike us as hilariously funny, but for audiences
before the First World War they revealed a new genre of light social comedy
involving the daily domestic problems of a prosperous middle-class couple.
In this episode the difficulties of finding and keeping a good cook oblige
Mr. Drew to take the new Treasure out for the evening  causing misunderstandings
among his friends, who mistakenly suspect a rift in the perfect marriage.
In terms of Funny Ladies, the film provides a bonus in the un-named actress
who plays the stout and stoical new cook.  DR

Losing her job in the beauty parlour, Dorothy endeavours to help her
sick brother by taking a job as reporter. As a result of interviewing
an eccentric millionaire, she becomes involved in retrieving a valuable
bracelet from a larcenous monkey. When the chase leads up the side of
a skyscraper, Dorothy performs a sequence clearly inspired by Harold Lloyds
Safety Last (1923). Max Davidson makes a treasurable appearance
as an enterprising street vendor who rents seats and binoculars for those
who want a better view of Dorothys distress. The director
Scott Sidney (1872-1928) entered films in 1913, and was at first a director
of dramatic and adventure films (including the 1918 Tarzan of the
Apes). In 1919, however, he suddenly showed a taste and talent for
comedy, which remained his principal work until his death. One of his
most successful films was Charleys Aunt (1925) starring Syd
Chaplin. He directed a number of shorts and features starring Dorothy
Devore, including Getting Gerties Goat (1924) and The
Wrong Mr. Wright (1927).  DR